Welcome! This is the SI-SIG at Hyperledger. We're a global community interested in leveraging blockchain technology for a greater social impact. We're working together to identify use cases, opportunities, share feedback and lessons learned, and work together to ensure blockchain is implemented where relevant and in a way that maximizes positive impact. Join us!

Introduction and Scope

Distributed ledger technologies (DLT) offers significant potential to deliver benefits for humanitarian aid, development, and civil society institutions in general. Our top-level mission is to identify specific opportunities for open source software development projects which could help various actors move more quickly on use cases with high potential to positively impact social good. Those efforts could be built upon existing Hyperledger code bases, but are not limited to that. To get started, we need to talk openly and frankly about what can be done, and how to move forward in a thoughtful and coherent manner that strives to promote best practices and works to avoid missed opportunities.

Scope

The Hyperledger Social Impact SIG is primarily focused on serving as a platform for exchanging ideas and exploration of ways to use blockchain technology in the context of social good. The areas of focus may include:

Identifying related use cases, current pilots and proofs of concept, and production case studies;

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Social Impact Special Interest Group (SI-SIG)

Introduction

Distributed ledger technologies (DLT) offers significant potential to deliver benefits for humanitarian aid, development, and civil society institutions in general. From uniting disparate processes, to increasing transparency, to improving data flows, DLT promises to reduce costs and promote efficiencies that will allow humanitarian aid and development to reach more people and improve outcomes.

The open source mandate and collaborative nature of Hyperledger provides a convenient forum for like-minded individuals to work together to realize the full potential of blockchain technologies for social good. Accordingly, we seek to launch within Hyperledger a Social Impact Special Interest Group (SI-SIG). The SI-SIG will strive to document and foster technical and business-level conversations about appropriate applications for blockchain technology in the service of societal good.

Our top-level mission is to identify specific opportunities for open source software development projects which could help various actors move more quickly on use cases with high potential to positively impact social good. Those efforts could be built upon existing Hyperledger code bases, but are not limited to that. To get started, we need to talk openly and frankly about what can be done, and how to move forward in a thoughtful and coherent manner that strives to promote best practices and works to avoid missed opportunities.

Scope

The Hyperledger Social Impact SIG is primarily focused on serving as a platform for exchanging ideas and exploration of ways to use blockchain technology in the context of social good. The Social Impact SIG will work with the other working groups and technical teams, especially in the areas of implementation. The areas of focus include:

Identifying related use cases, current pilots and proofs of concept, and production case studies;

Exploring cross-cutting concerns like security, privacy, and identity in global South contexts;

Identifying existing or needed common critical software components that would serve the particular needs of global social impact;

Working towards proposing solutions to the problems identified;

Identifying conferences or other opportunities to connect face to face, as well as submit talks or present as a group at an event.

Identifying the business and NGO community and building an inclusive platform for early adopters to contribute with their experiences.

Facilitation and raising awareness of the opportunities blockchain can bring to the field.

Work Products

The Group will focus on convening a broad ecosystem, leveraging the skills, capabilities and perspectives of individuals from the developer community, the social and humanitarian space, enterprises, government and non-government entities, and beyond.

The anticipated initial work products will include (but is not limited to):

Phase One: Ecosystem Analysis

Opportunity Matrix – this document and supporting material will highlight where DLT can be used for social impact and illustrate the specific areas of focus, across sectors, for the SI-SIG, weighing its feasibility and potential impact. It will include, but is not limited to:

Landscape analysis of existing blockchain solutions under development and currently being implemented. Identifying development challenges and pain points that blockchain could help to alleviate. Outlining technical challenges and opportunities for technical development.

Phase Two: Project Proposal and Plan

Based upon the outcome of Phase One, with input from the TSC, we will develop a proposed plan to engage a broader community in designing and applying a technical solution to select project(s). This may include, but is not limited to, outreach to member partners, soliciting RFIs, sponsoring campus-based competitions and hosting hackathons.

Collaborators (other groups)

This SIG will collaborate with other Hyperledger groups, the TSC, Linux Foundation staff, and the project maintainers. The Social Impact SIG is interested in collaborating with other Hyperledger and non-Hyperledger groups that aim to identify and share blockchain solutions that increase impact in global development. Other relevant Hyperledger Groups include:

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3 Comments

Hello good people. My name is Tafadzwa Dutoit Nyamande and I am the Head of Industrial Hemp Business Development for Zimbabwe Industrial Hemp Trust(ZIHT). ZIHT is the leading organisation steering the development of the hemp industry in Zimbabwe. From 2 years ago we were involved in the lobbying with the government for the recognition/legalisation of hemp agriculture. In August this year, the government released the statutory instrument recognising hemp as agricultural commodity. ZIHT hold holds the first cannabis research licence and in October we planted the first hemp pilot project in Zimbabwe.

Early this year I enrolled for an MOOC hosted by The World Bank Open Learning Campus, Unlocking Investment and Finance in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies. Despite my finance background, this course introduced me to social impact principles and paved a path for me to enroll in the Blockchain for Business Professional Certificate that ultimately landed me here.

I believe hemp carries profound social impact opportunities for Zimbabwe as a poor country in dire need for economic and social development. I seek an opportunity to engage with the Hyperledger community to develop solutions in the following areas:

1. Setting up a diaspora equity investment fund to get Zimbabweans in the diaspora community to be directly and actively involved as part of a blended finance strategy. The diaspora constitutes the largest source of foreign currency contributions to the economy yet has limited opportunities/trust to invest in developing the country.

2. Bringing together a consortium of global companies in the hemp industry that will benefit in the downstream and upstream opportunities from 'seed-to-sale'. Involvement will include, particularly but not limited to, players in hemp bioplastics, hemp biodiesel/renewable energy, hemp for paper industries, building with hemp/lime mixture aka hempcrete as well as hemp fiber for textiles. We will consider PPP arrangements as well as other innovative solutions.

3. The involvement of small holder farmers in hemp farming, SMEs in supply chain, provenance tracking and identity management.

4. Using DLTs and perhaps cryptocurrencies combined with available tools from World Bank and other development finance institutions to hedge against political and currency risk.

5. The development of rural communities and rural growth point into satellite economic hubs perhaps leading into the formation of a smart city/economic zone on the backdrop of a hemp circular economy.

Zimbabwe has significant low production cost and climate advantages to allow 3 or 4 harvests a year. I envision impact in millions of people's lives and a true revival of a trouble yet naturally well resourced economy. Hemp is a fast growing plant with can grow in many regions of the country way more sustainably than, cotton, tobacco or even trees. Most Zimbabweans own productive land owing to the infamous land resettlement program as well as traditional farmlands.

I look forward to engaging with the Hyperledger social impact SIG. I have made this my life task and I am prepared to be on the ground working with experts in their different fields in perhaps the most ambitious project of our generation, developing new industries from scratch as well as reviving old one but in a sustainable direction.